Justin Gatlin to race Yohan Blake and Ryan Bailey tomorrow, is Sub 10 possible?

Nice run by Gatlin, although he would have gotten destroyed in a good field, or if Blake hadn't pulled a hammy.

If he stays uninjured he will go sub-10 next year. Like it or not, he is one of the fastest guys around, what I think is the fastest possible: a 9.9x guy, who under excellent conditions will be able to post 9.8x.

His start and acceleration actually looked decent, but he lacks top-end. Top-end, in my experience, comes from conditioning training, and knowing how to let the speed come out during the 100m.

He used to be amazing at it, so I'm sure he can recover the ability if he puts in the work.

This time it wasn't there--an ailing Blake was able to pull away from him, and it looked rather easy. Blake was able to limp as fast as Gatlin was able to run. Maybe Gatlin was running smart and not pushing, because an injury would have sucked. If that was the case, hats off to him for having the discipline.

It's too bad he didn't get an earlier start to this season. He may not be too bright, but he is physically gifted.

After watching that race, I am convinced a healthy Gatlin will do no worst than being in the relay pool for next year's WC and perhaps even competing as an individual. His start, drive phase and the begining of his acceleration was world class, but he reached his top end at about 65 meters, which is good, but he was only able to hold it for about 15 meters. He was seriously decelerating the last 15 meters much more so than it looked on film; if Blake had not eased up, he would pulled away by 2 strides. Gatlin not being able to hold his top end speed longer and maintaining to the finish line is conditioning. Remember, Gatlin was a very good 200m sprinter, as far back as H.S. always finished strong and was good at running rounds. Assuming he will make a little more progress this year, the only U.S. sprinters I clearly put ahead on him going into next year is Tyson and Dix.

Weather you are a Gatlin fan or not, you have to admit that competing at this level after such a long layoff is amazing.

Gatlins form looks like shit. He still has as much power as anyone, he just applies it very sloppily nowadays. He shuffled his way to a 10.0x, I think if he improves his form he could go 9.7x-9.8x again.

And he was definitely trying as hard as he could. His top end speed does need some work, but that can come around fairly quickly if he trains it right. He is very talented, he just needs to clean up his form and learn to relax at top speed again.

He will need to be better than before if he wants to be a contender. The bar has been raised while he was away.

Totally agree with what TrackCoach said, except I don't think it's that amazing. Excellent, but not amazing.

Hey Coach, are you completely discounting the new kid on the block, Bailey?

If he's for real, I'd put him clearly ahead of Gatlin.

He really needs to improve that top-end, however, if he wants a spot on the relay team, especially if either Patton or Rodgers is running well.

why are the brojos giving gatlin so much coverage despite their dislike/disapproval of him??

sad sad day gatlin back competing at meets like this